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Chad King tells PEOPLE Christina Applegate has been a source of support in his journey with multiple sclerosis

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• "Christina has different symptoms than me, and it's like we're going through our own struggles, but we can come together," says King

• The Grammy-winning A Great Big World member explores his MS journey in his new EP The Road Ahead, released April 17

Chad Kingis able to connect withChristina Applegateover their shared experience of living with multiple sclerosis.

The A Great Big World musician, who was diagnosed with MS in 2007, explored his journey with the autoimmune disease for a new EP,The Road Ahead. Now, he's opening up about getting to know Applegate, who publicly shared her MS diagnosis in 2021.

"Christina Applegate has been a guiding light for me in this whole process, which has been amazing," King, 40, tells PEOPLE after meeting Applegate through appearing on a February 2025 episode of theAnchormanactress'MeSsypodcast, co-hosted withJamie-Lynn Sigler,who shared that she was diagnosed with MS in2016.

"Every person with MS has different symptoms. It varies completely," says King. "Christina has different symptoms than me, and it's like we're going through our own struggles, but we can come together. She lifts me up."

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Applegate's long been open about her experience living with MS, and she's also provided a shoulder for King to lean on. "She's just reminding me that there's so much good in your life," says the Grammy-winning "Say Something" artist. "As dark as and heavy as this moment is, there's so much light."

Earlier this week,Applegate shared a statementabout her health toInstagramfollowing reports of a recent hospitalization. "Thank you for the outpouring of love and well wishes. Health issues are a constant for me, but I'm a strong chick and I'm getting stronger and better every day," she wrote on Monday, April 20. "I’m taking a moment to focus on my health, but I’ll be back with more to say soon enough."

King'sThe Road AheadEP was released on Friday, April 17. "For me, it's capturing this moment when multiple sclerosis symptoms started to affect me and my world," he tells PEOPLE of the project's inspiration.

"I couldn't walk the same, I couldn't sing the same. And I was like, okay, I still want to write music," continues King. "And so, these were the songs that I wrote and then was able to capture on recording. It's only four songs, but for me it was like, this is what I could do in the time I had. And I'm really proud."

Read the original article onPeople

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at American allies Friday for not committing naval forcesforcibly re-open the Strait of Hormuzafter Iran shut down the key waterway in retaliation against the U.S.-Israeli attacks.

During a Pentagon briefing with Joint Chiefs of Staff chair General Dan Caine, Hegseth implied thatEuropean and Asian countries were not sufficiently gratefulfor the U.S.-led war, which he called “a gift to the world” from PresidentDonald Trump, citing the administration's purported goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“It's a bold and dangerous mission ... courtesy of a bold and historic president,” Hegseth said.

The defense secretary claimed the U.S. Navy's “ironclad blockade” on Iranian ports would be “going global” and “tightening by the hour” to prevent any ships from entering or leaving Iran's territorial waters absent U.S. permission.

At the same time, he accused Iranian forces of “acting like terrorists” by attempting to enforce their own blockade of the waterway against “random ships" and laying "indiscriminate mines" in the strait.

"Iran's battered military ... has been reduced to a gang of pirates with a flag. They cloak their aggression in slogans, but the world now sees them for what they are — criminals on the high seas," he said.

“We are in control. Nothing in, nothing out,” Hegseth added.

Although the ex-television presenter turned defense chief claimed the U.S. has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, American ships have not been operating in that narrow passage because doing so would put them in range of Iranian drone or missile attacks.

Instead, American forces in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean have been intercepting ships bound for or originating from Iranian ports since earlier this month as a way of restricting Iranian revenue from both oil exports and Tehran’s efforts to extract massive tolls from ships seeking to pass through the strait.

Iranian forces have effectively blockaded the strait since the start of the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign, cutting off approximately 20 percent of the world’s oil supply from markets and sending petroleum prices to levels not seen in years.

Tehran has also placed mines in the strait and has seized or attacked ships transiting through it, leading to a massive buildup of idle ships and raising fears of shortages of fuel and other products in regions that rely heavily on imports and exports through the strait.

Hegseth denigrated longtime U.S. allies in Europe and Asia for not joining in the American-Israeli war and claiming that they have more reason to want shipping traffic through the strait to resume because the U.S. “barely” makes use of it in comparison.

“Europe and Asia have benefited from our protection for decades, but the time for free riding is over. America and the free world deserve allies who are capable, who are loyal and who understand that being an ally is not a one way street. It's a two way street,” Hegseth said.

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“We are not counting on Europe, but they need theStrait of Hormuzmuch more than we do, and might want to start doing less talking and having less fancy conferences in Europe and get in a boat.”

The defense secretary’s derisive comments towards U.S. allies come one week after the U.K. and France convened a 51-country summit on the situation in the Strait of Hormuz.

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron announced that both countries would lead “an independent and strictly defensive multinational mission to protect merchant vessels, reassure commercial shipping operators, and conduct mine clearance operations.”

Starmer and Macron said in a statement that the multinational effort would commence “as soon as conditions permit” but only after implementation of a “sustainable ceasefire agreement.”

While a long-term deal appears far off, earlier this week Trump announced that he would continue to honor a temporary ceasefire deal that had been set to expire Wednesday after Pakistani leaders prevailed on him to do so rather than resume attacks on targets inside Iran. But the president told reporters he’s in no hurry to make a deal with Tehran, insisting that he has “all the time in the world” to do so.

During a question-and-answer session with a handpicked selection of right-wing reporters who’d been given front-row seats at the Pentagon press conference, Hegseth said the blockade would last “as long as it takes” while belittling Starmer and Macron’s efforts as “a lot of talks” and mocking the multinational summit as “a silly conference in Europe last week where they got together and talked about, talking about maybe doing something eventually, when things are done.”

He similarly slammed the proposed multinational force as “not serious efforts” because they would not involve offensive operations against Iranian forces while claiming the U.S. would “welcome a serious European effort to do something about this straight and this passage, considering it's their energy capabilities that are most at stake.”

Hegseth’s repeated belittling of America’s traditional allies is in line with the president’s repeated expressions of disdain for NATO after the 32-member defensive alliance did not join in the offensive war he started on February 28 alongside Israel without consulting or requesting help from other members of the alliance.

Trump has since then repeatedly mocked NATO as a “paper tiger” and claimed members “weren’t there for us” despite the fact that the alliance’s mutual defense provision has only been invoked to defend the U.S. in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

As Iran’s retaliatory blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has caused global oil prices to spike and Trump’s approval rating to sink ahead of the November midterm elections in the U.S., the president and his aides have been considering how to punish NATO members for not joining the U.S.-led war.

Trump has mused aloud about withdrawing the U.S. from NATO — a course of action that would be prohibited under a 2021 law authored by Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his time as a Florida senator — and a leaked Pentagon memorandum first reported on by Reuters suggests retaliating against the U.K. by purportedly “reviewing” British claims to the Falkland Islands.

The State Department’s website states that the islands are administered by the UK but are still claimed by Argentina, whose libertarian president, Javier Milei, is a Trump ally.

In response, a spokesperson for Starmer pointed out that Falklanders “have hugely voted overwhelmingly in favor of remaining a UK overseas territory.”

“The question of the Falkland Islands and the UK’s sovereignty and the islanders’ right to self-determination is not in question, and we’ve expressed that position clearly and consistently,” the spokesperson added.

The American Lung Associationrecently released its yearly “State of the Air” report – and though none of South Florida’s cities are among the 25 most polluted, air quality has decreased in some of the region’s metros.

The report analyzes data from 2022 through 2024 to grade counties onunhealthy levelsof ozone and particle pollution, perhaps better understood assmog and soot, respectively. In the Miami-Port St. Lucie-Fort Lauderdale metro area, the air quality declined slightly, exposing residents to more unhealthy ozone pollution. The region ranked as the 132nd worst out of 226 metropolitan areas for high ozone, 110th worst out of 224 areas for 24-hour particle pollution and 57th worst out of 211 areas for annual particle pollution.

“Clean air is essential to the health and well-being of families across Florida. Children deserve to breathe air that won’t make them sick,” Ashley Lyerly, senior director of advocacy for the American Lung Association, said in a press release.

Collectively, 152 million people of all ages in the U.S., or about 44%, live in counties that have received a failing grade on at least one air pollution measure.

“Clean air takes work. Unfortunately, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rollbacks of critical healthy air rules are impacting our residents. We urge Florida’s policymakers to take action to improve our air quality, and we are calling on everyone to tell EPA that our kids’ health counts.”

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The air quality monitoring network in Florida is limited, according to the report – if there’s no monitor present in a county, no data for it will be available. In Florida, 35 of 67 counties could be graded on at least one air quality measure, according tothe ALA's report card.

See the high ozone days of 35 out of 67 Florida counties

Grade, Average Weight of Air

Hillsborough

Indian River

See particle pollution rankings for 16 out of 67 Florida counties

Grade, Average Weight of Air

Hillsborough

Don't see your county? Try your address instead

If you do not see your county on the list, you can still tryputting in your address on the website.

How does bad air quality impact our health?

The report found that 32.9 million people live in counties that received failing grades on all three measures.

As for what that means for their health – the ALA says its years of scientific research have shown thatparticle pollution and ozone are a threatto human health at every stage of life. Some of the major respiratory symptoms of air pollution include wheezing and coughing, shortness of breath, asthma attacks, worsening COPD and lung cancer.

Sarah Perkel is a South Florida Connect Reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Florida Connect team. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter,Florida TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:South Florida had fairly clean air, American Lung Association reports

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United States and Iran have signaled they will hold a new round of ceasefire talks in Pakistan, two regional officials said Tuesday, as leaders on both sides warned they were prepared for more fighting if afragile two-week truceexpires without a deal.

Neither the U.S. nor Iran has publicly confirmed the timing of the talks in Islamabad, with Iranian state television denying any official was already in Pakistan’s capital.

Pakistan-led mediators received confirmation that the top negotiators, U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, will arrive in Islamabad early Wednesday to lead their teams in the talks, the regional officials told The Associated Press.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

A ceasefire that began April 8 was set to expire Wednesday.

Trump says he doesn't favor extending ceasefire

Both sides remain dug in rhetorically. U.S. PresidentDonald Trump has warnedthat “lots of bombs” will “start going off” if there’s no agreement before the ceasefire deadline, and Iran’s chief negotiator said that Tehran has “new cards on the battlefield” that haven't yet been revealed.

The ceasefire could be extended if talks resume, though Trump said in an interview Tuesday with CNBC: “Well, I don't want to do that.”

"We don’t have that much time,” Trump said, adding that Iran “had a choice” and “they have to negotiate.”

During his CNBC interview, Trump confirmed that he’s considering the possibility of a currency swap with the United Arab Emirates to help the Mideast ally secure U.S. dollars, as its oil-rich economy has been rattled by the Iran conflict.

The president expressed surprise that the nation needs assistance, but made clear he was open to the prospect of making the move to help meet his ally’s concerns.

While it has been able to send some of its oil out via a pipeline to the Gulf of Oman, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has squeezed the country’s oil exports.

White House officials have said that Vance would lead the American delegation, but Iran hasn't said who it might send. Iranian state television on Tuesday broadcast a message saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad … so far.”

Iranian state TV long has been controlled by hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy. The on-screen alert likely reflects the ongoing internal debate within Iran’s theocracy as it weighs how to respond to the U.S. Navy’s seizure of anIranian container shipover the weekend.

US says its forces board sanctioned oil tanker

On Tuesday, the U.S. said its forces boarded an oil tanker previously sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude oil in Asia. The Pentagon said in a social media post that U.S. forces boarded the M/T Tifani “without incident.”

The U.S. military did not say where the vessel had been boarded, though ship-tracking data showed the Tifani in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia on Tuesday.

The statement added that “international waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels.”

The U.S. military on Sunday seized an Iranian cargo vessel, the first interception underblockade of Iranian ports. Iran’s joint military command called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a violation of the ceasefire.

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Strait of Hormuz control key to negotiations

The U.S. imposed the blockade to pressure Tehran into ending its stranglehold on theStrait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane through which 20% of the world’s natural gas and crude oil transits in peacetime.

Iran’s grip on the strait has sent oil prices soaring.Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at close to $95 per barrel on Tuesday, up more than 30% from Feb. 28, the day that Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran to start the war.

Before the war began, the Strait of Hormuz had been fully open to international shipping. Trump has demanded that vessels again be allowed to transit unimpeded through the waterway.

European Union transportation ministers were meeting in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss how to protect consumers after the head of the International Energy Agency warned that Europe has “maybe six weeks” ofjet fuel suppliesremaining.

Over the weekend, Iran said that it had received new proposals from Washington, but also suggested that a wide gap remains between the sides. Issues that derailed the last round of negotiations includedIran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and the strait.

Qalibaf on Tuesday accused the United States of wanting Iran to surrender. He said that, on the contrary, Iran has been preparing “to reveal new cards on the battlefield.”

“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” he wrote in an X post.

Pakistan hopeful talks will proceed

Pakistani officials have expressed confidence that Iran will also send a delegation for more talks.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met with the ambassador from China, which is a key trading partner with Iran, while the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said the conflict was at a “critical stage of transition between war and peace.”

Security has been tightened across Pakistan’s capital, where authorities have deployed thousands of personnel and increased patrols along routes leading to the airport.

The arrangements appear stricter than those put in place during the first round of talks held in Islamabad on April 11 and 12, suggesting the possibility of high-level participation, if negotiations make progress, said Syed Mohammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst.

Historic Israel-Lebanon talks also set to resume

Meanwhile, historic diplomatic talks betweenIsrael and Lebanonwere set to resume on Thursday in Washington, an Israeli, a Lebanese and a U.S. official said. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes negotiations.

The Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors met last week for the first direct diplomatic talks in decades. Israel says the talks are aimed at disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement with Lebanon.

A10-day ceasefirebegan on Friday in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and Iranian-backedHezbollah militantsbroke out two days after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran to start the war. Fighting in Lebanon haskilled more than 2,290 people.

Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to authorities. Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. David Rising and Huizhong Wu in Bangkok; Sam McNeil in Brussels and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this story.

TheUSmilitaryhas released avideoshowing a helicopter crew redirecting a ship amidDonald Trump’sStrait of Hormuzblockade.

Footage shared by theUS Central Commandon Monday (20 April) shows a crew member communicating with a ship attempting to enter an area of blockade, warning that the blockade on Iranian ports will be enforced against all ships “regardless of flag”.

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He added: “Any vessel will further intent to enter or exit An Iranian port will be subject to the right of visit and search in accordance with international law.

“If you attempt to run the blockade, we will compel compliance with force.”

CENTCOM says US forces have directed 27 vessels to turn around or return to an Iranian port.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court handed a win Friday to oil and gas companies fighting lawsuits over coastal land loss and environmental degradation in Louisiana.

The unanimous procedural decision gives the companies a new day in federal court after a state jury ordered Chevron to payupward of $740 millionto clean up damage to the state’s coastline, one of multiple similar lawsuits.

Backed by the Trump administration, the companies argued the case belongs in federal court because the work in Louisiana started as an effort to quickly increase the supply of aviation gasoline for the U.S. government during World War II.

The high court agreed. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the 8-0 court, noted Congress has long allowed lawsuits against the government and its contractors to be heard in federal court. This suit, he wrote, is clearly related to Chevron’s wartime efforts to bolster the U.S. aviation fuel supply.

Louisiana’s coastal parishes have lost more than 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers) of land over the past century, according to theU.S. Geological Survey, which has also identified oil and gas infrastructure as a significant cause. The state could lose an additional 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers) in the coming decades, its coastal protection agencyhas warned.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry backed the lawsuits when he was attorney general, even though he’s a longtime oil and gas industry supporter. An attorney for local Louisiana leaders, John Carmouche, said they disagree with the decision but plan to keep the lawsuits alive.

“Simply changing where the case will be heard, as has happened, will not deter our efforts to have Big Oil held accountable for the damages they caused and the enormous restoration they owe the people of Louisiana,” Carmouche said.

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The companies appealed to the high court after jurors in Plaquemines Parish — a sliver of land straddling the Mississippi River into the Gulf — found that energy giant Texaco, acquired by Chevron in 2001, had for decades violated Louisiana regulations governing coastal resources by failing to restore wetlands impacted by dredging canals, drilling wells and billions of gallons of wastewater dumped into the marsh.

Chevron applauded the Supreme Court’s decision, saying the claims are related to work that the companies did under federal supervision. “Chevron looks forward to litigating these cases in federal court, where they belong,” the company said in a statement.

The company denies responsibility for land loss in Louisiana and argues it’s wrong to sue it for what it did before state environmental regulations were in place.

The case is one of dozens of lawsuits filed in 2013 alleging oil giants including Chevron and Exxon violated state environmental laws for decades. Friday’s ruling overturns a 2024 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Carmouche said it affects 11 of the 42 cases against various oil companies.

The energy industry group Grow Louisiana said the decision should spell the end of the litigation. “These lawsuits have cost Louisiana billions, killed jobs and padded trial lawyers’ pockets," Executive Director Marc Ehrhardt said. “Enough is enough. Stop these lawsuits.”

Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from the case, pointing to financial ties to ConocoPhillips. He's previously recused himself from other cases due to his stock holdings.

Brook reported from New Orleans.

A shelter formigrant childrenin New York is facingallegations of abuseincluding placing children in restraints and isolating some kids in a so-called “red room,” according to a report.

The alleged abuse occurred at Children’s Village, a shelter in Dobbs Ferry, 25 miles north of Manhattan, which has served unaccompanied migrant children since 2004,CNN reported.

The children were allegedly beaten by a “special unit” team, with abuse taking place out of the view of security cameras. Some were punished with restraints or isolated in a so-called “red room,” for extended periods of time, sources told CNN.

The shelter stopped housing children in January and kids were moved elsewhere due to “significant child welfare concerns,” according to documents viewed by the publication.

Unaccompanied migrant children are the responsibility of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which falls under the Health and Human Services Department. HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told CNN the agency “takes all allegations of misconduct involving children in its care extremely seriously.”

“Upon receiving an allegation related to this facility, ORR acted immediately to transfer all unaccompanied children to other locations and referred the matter to the appropriate federal investigative authorities. The safety and well-being of children in ORR care is a top priority, and any credible concerns are addressed swiftly and thoroughly,” Nixon said.

One teen at the shelter said he spent four days alone in a “red room,” which had a red light and no door. While isolated in the room, the boy did not bathe and was only given bread to eat, according to the report.

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The teen also reported that a “special unit” would get involved when fights broke out and restraints were needed. He said he was thrown to the floor, hit and placed in restraints nearly two dozen times.

Sources told CNN that multiple teens in the shelter had similar experiences with the “special unit.” While New York laws allow for “de-escalation rooms,” they are not permitted as a form of punishment. Sources said the shelter’s “red room” was not voluntary.

“It sounds like real abuse,” one said. “If a kid was subjected to that in their home, not allowed to shower, kept in a confined space for that long, they’d be considered to be in an abusive situation.”

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for the Children’s Village said: “We have zero tolerance for any form of punishment.”

“All teens in our care deserve the highest level of care, support, and professionalism from every adult responsible for their well-being. Allegations of employee misconduct are deeply distressing, and if received, we make an immediate report to the authorities. We will take all necessary steps to ensure that any staff member found to have engaged in misconduct is addressed appropriately and without hesitation,” the spokesperson added.

The Independenthas contacted the Children’s Village for comment.

The New York State Justice Center, which recieves reports of abuse and neglect declined to comment on reports it received about the shelter and did not provide CNN with information about its investigation.

FBI Director Kash Patelhas vehemently denied—and threatened a lawsuit over—a new reportfromThe Atlanticthis week, which alleges excessive drinking and unexplained absences during his tenure as bureau chief.

In onepost on X, Patel told the outlet and author of the report: “See you and your entire entourage of false reporting in court,” calling the piece a “legal layup.”

“Memo to the fake news - the only time I’ll ever actually be concerned about the hit piece lies you write about me will be when you stop,” Patel added in another poston XSaturday morning. “Keep talking, it means I’m doing exactly what I should be doing. And no amount of BS you write will ever deter this FBI from making America safe again and taking down the criminals you love.”

Thearticle, published Friday evening, cites more than two dozen people, including unnamed current and former FBI officials, alleging several episodes described as “freak-outs” from the 46-year-old former public defender. These allegations of erratic behavior and excessive drinking are indicative of what they describe as poor and even absent leadership of the agency, which hasabout 38,000 employees.

Several officials cited in the piece say that Patel is known for "obvious intoxication" at private clubs in Washington and in Las Vegas, forcing his staff to move early morning meetings to later in the day as he recovered. Justice Department and White House officials also described instances in which aides or security personnel had difficulty waking him. In one case, members of his security detail were unable to reach him behind locked doors, prompting a request for “breaching equipment” typically used by tactical teams. If substantiated, such conduct would violate the Department of Justice’sethics standards, which prohibit habitual intoxication.

Officials also said it had raised concerns about public safety, with some wondering how Patel would handle a domestic terrorist attack. “That’s what keeps me up at night,” one official toldThe Atlantic, adding that concerns have grown in the weeks since the United States beganmilitary operations against Iran.

The article also alleges that many staffers are just “waiting” for the notice that Patel will be fired from his position, despite President Donald Trump havingpreviously defendedthe FBI director. Officials cited in the report pointed to his unreachability and impulsivity in response to high-stakes situations.

In response to the allegations, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told the magazine that “crime across the country has plummeted to the lowest level in more than 100 years and many high profile criminals have been put behind bars. Director Patel remains a critical player on the Administration’s law and order team.”

The report comes weeks after Iran-linked hackers calling themselves Handala claimed to have breached Patel’s personal email andpublished photographsand documents online, according to Reuters.

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Past controversies

The report adds to the mounting questions over Patel’s leadership of the U.S.’s principal federal law enforcement agency and is the latest in a series of controversies surrounding him.

In September 2025, Pateldrew criticismamong lawmakers across the political aisle over his handling of the manhunt for right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk’s killer, especially after heprematurely announcedthat the authorities had detained a suspect.

At the time, Patel said in an interview that he had “no regrets” about the social media post, claiming that he was acting in the interest of transparency.

“Mr. Patel was so anxious to take credit for finding Mr. Kirk’s assassin that he violated one of the basics of effective law enforcement: At critical stages of investigation, shut up and let the professionals do their job,” Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois,saidin an FBI oversight hearing at the time.

Read more:After Missteps, Kash Patel Faces Questions Over His Leadership of Charlie Kirk Investigation

In December last year, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committeereleased a letterdemanding answers after reports emerged that Patel used a government aircraft on a “date night” with his country singer girlfriend, to go see her perform in Pennsylvania, and for trips to places like Texas and Scotland. Patelcalledthe accusations “baseless rumors” at the time.

Then, this February, he once againcame under firefor traveling to the Milan-Cortina Olympics to watch the U.S. men’s hockey team win the gold medal. Videos shared on social media after the game showed Patel chugging a beer, wearing a gold medal, and dancing and singing with the team.

An FBI spokesperson later defended Patel in aposton X. “No, it’s not a personal trip. Director Patel is on a trip that was planned months ago.”

The White House did not immediately respond to TIME's request for comment.

DNA analysis has identified theremains found in a carin the Columbia River as those of an Oregon family that went missing in 1958 while on a trip to find Christmas greenery, authorities said Thursday.

The state medical examiner's office has identified parents Kenneth and Barbara Martin and their daughter Barbie from remains located in the river within the wreckage of the car, the Hood River County Sheriff's Officesaid. The sheriff's office said it concluded its investigation and found no evidence of a crime.

The Ford station wagon thought to belong to the family was found in 2024 by Archer Mayo, a diver who had been looking for it for several years. Authorities pulled part of the car from the river the following year.

The family vanished in December of 1958. The bodies of two of the family's children were found months after the disappearance, but the other members never turned up.

The search for the Martin family was a national news story at the time and led some to speculate about the possibility of foul play, with a $1,000 reward offered for information.

"Where do you search if you've already searched every place logic and fragmentary clues would suggest?" an Associated Press article asked in 1959, months after the disappearance.

Only the frame and some attached components were retrieved from the water because of the "extent to which the vehicle had been encased in sediment," the sheriff's office said. Analysis of those items allowed investigators to conclude that it was indeed the Martin family's car.

Later in 2025, Mayo located human remains that were ultimately turned over to the state medical examiner's office.

Scientists developed DNA extracts from the remains and generated a profile that was compared with relatives of the Martin family, allowing for the identifications, authorities said.

Othram, a DNA lab in Texas,did forensic analysis on the remains, which ultimately led to the positive identification.

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Othram's Colby Lasyonetold CBS affiliate KOIN-TVthat more than a dozen experts worked on the case, noting they extracted a bone sample and used advanced techniques to isolate and analyze the DNA. DNA comparisons with a living relative positively identified Kenneth Martin.

"Skeletal remains that have been submerged in water for decades can be particularly challenging to work with," Lasyone said. "Unfortunately, the skeletal remains for the other individuals were too degraded and couldn't be worked with."

Mayo also found remnants of a shoe and a camera case with Kenneth's name and address, seat belt buckles and camera film, KOIN-TV reported.

"Maybe there'll be pictures published one day of what that is, because that's a pretty cool piece to a mystery," he told the the station.

Mayo told KOIN-TV he was gratified the case was finally solved.

"It's not going to get more resolved than it is now and so that feels good," he told the station. "And that really lets us write the last chapter of that book."

In 2020,KOIN-TV did a four-part podcast on the case.

We traveled into the Strait of Hormuz. Here's what we saw.

Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and his wife found dead in murder-suicide

Why Todd Lyons is leaving his ICE leadership position

By Humphrey Malalo

Kenya court fines Chinese national Zhang Kequn U.S. dollars 7,746 and a one year jail term for illegal possession of garden ants

NAIROBI, April 15 (Reuters) - A Kenyan court on Wednesday ordered a Chinese man to pay a fine of ‌1 million shillings ($7,746) and gave him a 12-month jail term ‌for trying to smuggle live ants out of the country.

The magistrate in the case ​said a stiff sentence was needed as a deterrent given a spate of cases in Kenya of ant-trafficking.

It serves markets, such as China, where enthusiasts have paid large sums to maintain ant colonies in large ‌transparent vessels known as ⁠formicariums that allow them to study the species' complex social structures and behaviours.

Chinese national Zhang Kequn was arrested ⁠last month at Nairobi's main international airport with more than 2,200 live garden ants in his luggage.

Zhang's lawyer said he would appeal against his ​sentence.

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He initially ​pleaded not guilty to charges ​including dealing in live wildlife ‌species but later changed his plea to guilty.

"Noting the increasing and rising cases of dealing in large quantities of garden ants and the negative ecological side effects of massive harvesting, there is a need for a stiff deterrent," magistrate Irene Gichobi said.

A Kenyan man, Charles Mwangi, ‌was also charged in the case, ​accused of supplying the ants to Zhang.

Mwangi ​has pleaded not guilty and ​is out on bail. His case was not ‌before the court on Wednesday.

Last year ​four men were ​fined 1 million shillings each for trying to traffic thousands of ants. Wildlife experts said at the time that the case ​signalled a shift in ‌biopiracy from trophies like elephant ivory to lesser-known species.

($1 = 129.1000 ​Kenyan shillings)

(Writing by Vincent Mumo Nzilani and Elias Biryabarema;Editing ​by Alexander Winning and Barbara Lewis)

Bob Odenkirk knows what kind of action star he is — and, maybe more importantly, isn't.

At 63, less than five years removed from a heart attack that nearly ended his life, the actor understands exactly what his body is capable of. He can't do high spinning kicks or elaborate gymnastics. He can't dodge 30 punches in a row. He's the same age as Tom Cruise but you're not going to see him hanging off the wing of a plane or sprinting across rooftops "Mission: Impossible"-style.

"Tom Cruise is just in better shape than me," Odenkirk says over Zoom from New York in the gravelly, matter-of-fact Midwestern cadence that has carried him from his ’90s alt-comedy sketch series "Mr. Show" through hisEmmy-winning turn as Saul Goodmanon "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" and into films like"The Post"and "Nebraska." "I mean, he can do things I can't sell."

What Odenkirk can sell, as his unlikely turn as a suburban dad with a violent past in the2021 sleeper hit "Nobody"and last year's sequel "Nobody 2" made clear, is something more specific and, in its way, a lot more interesting. He can show you what it looks like when your neighbor — a guy who could be teaching an intro to business class at a night school — is capable of lethal violence. And he can be likable and funny while doing it.

Read more:What's harder: weapons or improv training? Bob Odenkirk has the answer

"There's a certain kind of fighting that I can do that fits my face and my body type," Odenkirk explains. "I can play a guy who is just going to wear the other person down. He's going to do the simplest moves he can find and they're going to be hard and they’re going to hurt. That's what I can do."

If it wasn't already clear that Odenkirk isn't your conventional action star, his new film "Normal" should seal the deal. In theaters Friday after a strong reception at SXSW last month, the genre-scrambling, darkly comic neo-western casts him as Ulysses, a principled small-town sheriff who takes a temporary posting in a sleepy corner of Minnesota called Normal. Haunted by a failed marriage and a past case that ended badly, he arrives hoping for a quiet stint and instead stumbles into a mystery involving his dead predecessor and a town whose friendly residents are suspiciously armed to the teeth and sitting on an enormous amount of wealth. As he starts to pull at the thread, Ulysses finds himself up against not just the entire community but — improbably, given the setting — the yakuza.

Indie distributor Magnolia's biggest theatrical push to date (opening on approximately 2,000 screens), "Normal" has enough over-the-top violence and elaborately choreographed kills to satisfy anyone coming for carnage. But for Odenkirk, it was the prospect of a slow burn that appealed to him, with a first stretch that plays closer to "Fargo" before the mayhem ramps up to almost cartoonish proportions.

"This one had, like, one-and-a-half acts of mystery and a humorous look at small-town people," he says. "That was the part where I was like, I want to dothat. Because, you know, otherwise, you don't need me — get Jason Statham.”

Setting the film in the Midwest helped tune it to Odenkirk's particular temperament. The actor, who was born and raised in Illinois, developed the story with "Nobody" screenwriter Derek Kolstad, best known for creating the "John Wick" franchise, and the two quickly bonded over a shared sensibility.

"Bob immediately leaped into this idea because he grew up in Naperville," Kolstad says. "I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, and we totally understood the mentality of small towns and how you can have the onion of a deep, dark secret. We love small towns. We're not making fun of them."

The character they built for "Normal" was intentionally less mythic and more grounded than the former government assassin Odenkirk plays in "Nobody."

"He is much more scrappy and internal and less about male rage," says the film's English director Ben Wheatley, best known for genre-bending fare like 2015's "High-Rise" and 2016's"Free Fire,"who drew on influences ranging from westerns to Hong Kong action films to the slapstick of the Three Stooges and "Evil Dead II." "Ulysses can fight, but it's not about him becoming this kind of revengeful wraith moving through the movie dispatching people. It's action, but with empathy."

For Odenkirk, part of the appeal was the opportunity to play someone closer to where he is now, not just physically but emotionally. "I love the chance to play someone who is my age, who maybe was proud and full of himself when he was younger and then made some bad choices and feels a little lost," he says. "The older you get, the more you realize you don't know what’s going on. I like playing a person who has that level of experience of the world."

Since survivinghis "widowmaker" heart attackon the New Mexico set of "Better Call Saul" in 2021 — an event that left him unconscious for a day and with no memory of the following week — Odenkirk has little interest in projecting invincibility. If anything, the experience reinforced the value of the kind of work he's been doing.

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"The truth is, the action movie helped save my heart," Odenkirk says, noting that the two years of intense training he did for "Nobody" helped build up the blood flow that kept his heart from sustaining lasting damage.

The aftermath of his near-death experience, he says, was just as profound. "The biggest thing was just this appreciation for being alive," Odenkirk recalls. "Those first couple weeks, I woke up without any worry in my mind. I just rediscovered the world every morning and loved it. That feeling has faded — it's not as complete and pure as it was. But I know it's there."

That shift has carried into Odenkirk's approach to his work. In recent years, he has moved more freely between film, television and the stage, including a Tony nomination last year for his performance as washed-up real estate salesman Shelley Levene in the Broadway revival of David Mamet's play"Glengarry Glen Ross,"choosing roles less for how they fit together than for how far they take him from what he's done before.

"I think he does it to surprise himself," says his "Normal" co-star Henry Winkler, who befriended the actor years ago when they met at a taping of "Late Night With Seth Meyers." "When you choose this profession, you don't just say the words. The fun is making somebody come alive that you don't necessarily identify with."

What comes next is, by Odenkirk's own admission, still taking shape. At this stage, the actor, who has a home in New York but lives primarily in L.A., is deliberately prioritizing the things he actually wants to do rather than rushing to line up the next job. He recently climbed Machu Picchu with his longtime friend and "Mr. Show" co-star David Cross, filming the trip for a documentary, and has been helping his son — one of two adult children he shares with his wife Naomi, a producer, whom he married in 1997 — develop a television pilot.

"I'm not racing to get my dance card full," he says, almost as an aside. "I might be retired." After letting the thought hang a moment, he smiles and shakes his head. "I don't think so. Nobody quits show business."

There's a version of Odenkirk's next phase that's easy to imagine: a late-career run of durable, increasingly grim action roles, the kind that has kept actors like Liam Neeson working steadily into their 70s. But Odenkirk sounds less interested in settling into that groove than in reshaping it. "I understand that the audience goes to see weapons and death and gore," he says. "But for me, I've got to be careful how much of that I put into the world."

One possibility he's been actively discussing with Kolstad pushes in almost the opposite direction, inspired by a mutual love of Jackie Chan. "Those early Jackie Chan films are really Buster Keaton–ish — very likable, not bloody," he says. "This would be PG, essentially. You could even say G-rated. There would be no blood in it. It's doing clever fighting that makes you smile and laugh."

And if "Normal" succeeds at the box office, he's already thinking about where Ulysses might go next. Odenkirk and Kolstad have begun kicking around ideas for extending the character into an ongoing franchise. "There is no character I've ever done that I feel as close to," he says. "With Saul and even with 'Nobody,' slipping into that guy's skin is a little challenging. This guy is a lot less challenging and I like playing him. So I can imagine resuming his story."

A little later in our conversation, he pulls out his phone, scrolls for a second, then hits play. What comes through the speaker is a demo he recorded singing a Tom Lehrer-style satirical show tune: "It's a New York night and it feels so right / The New York lights are shining bright … in Chicago."

The song is part of an album he’s recording called "Odenkirk Sings Nutter," featuring comedy numbers written by writer and playwright Mark Nutter, a longtime friend. Nutter, he explains, has spent years writing sharp, absurdist songs and musicals that have remained largely under the radar. The album is an effort to change that.

"Like with doing an action movie, it's this notion of: If I can do this even respectably, I'm going to blow everyone’s mind," he says. "They're gonna be like, 'Are you kidding?' If I have any dream, it would be somebody listens to it and says, 'Who is this guy? Why don't we take some of these songs or one of his musicals and get people who actually can sing to do them?' "

He smiles, more at the attempt than the outcome.

"My whole career has felt like risk and danger and potentially being very deeply embarrassed on a world stage," Odenkirk says. "Some part of me says I don't give a s— and that it's fine if I'm embarrassed. I don't know if that’s true. But I'm willing to risk it."

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This story originally appeared inLos Angeles Times.

A federal judge on Thursday issued a new order halting construction of President Donald Trump's much-touted new White House ballroom, finding the administration was using fancy footwork to try to sidestep his previous ruling.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon had previouslyissued an orderhalting the $400 million project until the White House got it approved by Congress, with an exception for "actions strictly necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House and its grounds.” That specifically includes an underground bunker and security measures being put in place at the site under the former East Wing structure.

Trump argued that the exception also meant the whole 90,000-square-foot ballroom could be built, because the entire project is necessary for the safety and security of the White House. Leon disagreed.

“Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, from tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore may proceed unabated. That is neither a reasonable nor a correct reading of my Order!” Leon,a noted fan of exclamation marks, wrote. “It is, to say the least, incredible, if not disingenuous, that Defendants now argue that my Order doesnotstop ballroom construction because of the safety-and-security exception!”

"I cannot possibly agree," Leon added.

National security, Leon writes, “is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity.”

The order does not take effect for seven days, which gives the government time to appeal.

Leon also clarified "the scope of the injunction" he issued last month, as a federal appeals court hadordered him to dolast week.

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The order “does not prohibit below-ground construction, including below-ground construction of national security facilities, as well as above-ground construction short of constructing the proposed above-ground ballroom that is strictly necessary to cover, secure, and protect such national security facilities, provided that any such construction will not lock in the above-ground size and scale of the ballroom,”Leon wrote.

The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The plaintiff in the case, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, had filed suit seeking to block the president's pet project until he received congressional approval, because the massive project exceeded his authority.

Leon agreed and issued a preliminary injunction, which the administration appealed.

The Justice Department adapted an argument that Trump made after the ruling — that the whole project could proceed because it's necessary for national security.

Administration lawyers asked the judge to adopt their position, and “clarify that under the safety-and-security exception, Defendants may proceed with construction of the East Wing project as scheduled because the entire project advances critical national-security objectives as an integrated whole.”

That’s because “a bunker or bomb shelter cannot serve its purpose without adequate above-ground cover," they argued.

The preservation groupargued in responsethat the administration’s position was a “brazen contortion of the laws of vocabulary,” and noted the administration had previously contended the bunker and underground facilities that were being built were separate from the ballroom.

That position changed after the judge’s ruling, the group said. “Bunkers, apparently, are only as good as the 90,000-square-foot, 40- foot-ceiling ballrooms on top of them,” the trust said. The group had objected to the underground work.

The daughter of a woman who remains missing in the Bahamas lashed out against her stepfather after arriving on Great Abaco Island Thursday.

Karli Aylesworth previously slammed her stepfather, Brian Hooker, who was the last person to see her mother, Lynette Hooker, alive on April 4. Brian said Lynette fell overboard from their dinghy around 7:30 p.m. as the pair motored toward their sailboat, which was anchored off Elbow Key.

Brian was arrested by the Royal Bahamas Police Force April 8 and spent five days behind bars whilepolice investigated Lynette's disappearance. He was released Monday night without being charged with a crime.

On Tuesday morning, he told several news outlets he wouldremain in the island nationto search for Lynette but jetted off Wednesday for the United States, landing in Atlanta in mid-afternoon, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital.

Coast Guard Opens Criminal Investigation Into Missing Woman Last Seen In Bahamas

"I think it shows his character. He somehow lost my mom at sea and cries on camera saying he’ll never stop searching, then leaves the next day," Aylesworthtold the New York Postupon her arrival to the town of Marsh Harbour, close to where her mother went missing.

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She deplaned at the tiny Leonard Thompson International Airport in Marsh Harbour with her boyfriend, Steve Hansen. They were reportedly met by a uniformed police officer before taking off in a taxi.

Hooker's attorney, Terrel Butler, said he was going to visit Hooker's mother.

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"Following his release from custody without charge, Mr. Hooker is now facing another emergency. In addition to the trauma of his wife of 25 years being missing, Mr. Hooker has received urgent word of his mother’s grave illness," Butler toldNBC News.

"He has traveled to [the] United States of America to be at her bedside during this critical time."

After her mother's disappearance, Aylesworth told Fox News Digital she was aware of "prior issues" with Brian's behavior.

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"There have been prior issues brought to my attention, which may be important for anythorough investigation. If this truly was an accident, I can understand and live with it," Aylesworth said. "However, there needs to be an intensive review of the facts and circumstances of this tragic incident before that can be determined."

Missing American’s Husband Had 'Spotty' Cell Service During 8-Hour Trek To Report Disappearance: Telecom Boss

Aylesworth said she has been "privy to very little information," adding her "sole concern is to find out what happened to my mother and make sure afull and complete investigationis performed into her disappearance."

She also told"Fox and Friends"that something "doesn't add up" with her mother's disappearance, and accused Brian of having a "history of domestic violence" and anger issues.

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Meanwhile, Bahamian police said theirsearch for Lynette was comingto an end as early as Thursday after analyzing "tide, drift and wind" and deciding there was nowhere else to look. A U.S. Coast Guard investigation remains ongoing.

Brian has maintained he had nothing to do with Lynette's disappearance and that it was purely an accident driven by windy conditions and choppy seas.

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Before he was jailed, he saidhe was "heartbroken" over Lynette'sdisappearance.

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"I am heartbroken over the recent boat accident in unpredictable seas and high winds that caused my beloved Lynette to fall from our small dinghy near Elbow Cay inthe Bahamas," he wrote.

"Despite desperate attempts to reach her, the winds and currents drove us further apart. We continue to search for her, and that is my sole focus."

Original article source:Daughter of missing American woman touches down in Bahamas, slams stepdad after he fled amid investigation

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Around 15 people deported from the United States landed in Congo’s capital Kinshasa in the early hours of Friday, one of their lawyers told The Associated Press.

It was the latest example of the Trump administration using agreements with African countries to accelerate migrant removals under controversial circumstances that have raised questions about respect for the migrants' rights.

An official at the Congolese migration agency confirmed the arrivals but didn’t provide details.

The deportees are all from Latin America and the Congolese government plans to keep them in the country for a short period, said U.S. attorney Alma David, who represents one of the deportees and has been speaking with her client since arriving in Kinshasa.

All the deportees are believed to have legal protection from U.S. judges shielding them against being returned to their home countries, David said. The deportees are believed to be staying at a hotel in Kinshasa.

The International Organization for Migration, a United Nations-affiliated agency, will be involved to offer “assisted voluntary return,” David told AP.

“The fact that the focus is on offering them ‘voluntary’ return to their home country when they spent months in immigration detention in the U.S. fighting hard to not have to go home is very alarming,” she said.

The IOM didn't immediately respond to AP's request for comment.

Congo's Ministry of Communications said in a statement earlier this month that itwill receive some migrants as part of a new dealunder the Trump administration’s third-country program.

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It described the arrangement as a “temporary” one that reflects Congo’s “commitment to human dignity and international solidarity.” It would come with zero costs to the government with the U.S. covering the needed logistics, it said.

The statement said no automatic transfer of the deportees is planned, adding: “Each situation will be subject to individual review in accordance with the laws of the Republic and national security requirements.”

The U.S. has struck such third-country deportation deals with at least seven other African nations, many of them among countries hit the most by the Trump administration’s policies that have restricted trade, aid and migration.

The Trump administration has spent at least $40 million to deport about 300 migrants to countries other than their own, according to a report released recently by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Lawyers and activists have raised questions over the nature of the deals with countries in Africa and elsewhere. Several of the African nations that have signed such deals have notoriously repressive governments and poor human rights records — including Eswatini, South Sudan and Equatorial Guinea.

This story has been corrected to show that Alma David is one of several lawyers representing the deportees.

Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Saleh Mwanamilongo in Bonn, Germany contributed to this report.

PARIS (AP) — The leaders of France and the U.K. will gather dozens of countries — but not the United States — on Friday to push forward plans to reopen theStrait of Hormuz,a key oil route choked off by theU.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Iran War

The Paris meeting is part of attempts by sidelined nations to ease the impact of a conflict they didn’t start and haven’t joined, but that has sent theglobal economy reeling. After the war started on Feb. 28, Iran effectively shut the narrow strait though which a fifth of the world’s oil usually passes.

The U.S. is not part of the planning for what has been branded the Strait of Hormuz Maritime Freedom of Navigation Initiative. In a post on X ahead of Friday’s conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said the mission to provide security for shipping through the strait would be “strictly defensive,” limited to non-belligerent countries and deployed “when security conditions allow.”

Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have spearheaded international efforts to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran, which Starmer has accused of “holding the world’s economy to ransom.” U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a retaliatory Americanblockade of Iranian portshas raised the economic jeopardy even higher.

“The unconditional and immediate reopening of the Strait is a global responsibility, and we need to act to get global energy and trade flowing freely again," Starmer said before the meeting.

Military planning underway

France and Britain also have led military planning meetings, in an echo of the “coalition of the willing” assembled to provide security for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire in that war.

French military spokesman Col. Guillaume Vernet said Thursday that the mission is still “in construction.”

Macron's office said participants will contribute “each according to its capabilities,” stressing options to ensure safe passage through the strait will depend on the security situation after a lasting ceasefire.

“What matters is that ship operators have all the means at their disposal to be sure their vessels will not be hit if they pass through the strait. That may require intelligence, mine-clearing capabilities, military escorts, communication procedures with coastal states, etc.,” an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the French presidency's customary practices.

Sidharth Kaushal, a research fellow in sea power at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said mine-clearing and creating a warning system for maritime threats were more likely roles for the coalition than warships escorting commercial tankers though the strait.

“You need huge numbers of vessels for that sort of thing, which nobody has,” he said.

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Iran expert Ellie Geranmayeh, deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said mine-clearing is an area where European countries and their partners could play a role.

“They would be a better party to do this than the United States, because once you have U.S. military doing this and lingering on Iranian shores, it creates a potential arena for Iran and the U.S. to have miscalculations and get back into a sort of military tension,” she said.

Dozens of countries involved in talks

Britain has discussed using mine-hunting drones, deployed from the ship RFA Lyme Bay, for a Hormuz mission.

The war has highlighted the shrunken state of the Royal Navy, which has deployed just one major warship, destroyer HMS Dragon, to the eastern Mediterranean. France, which has the European Union’s most powerful military,has sent its nuclear-powered aircraft carrierto the region, alongside a helicopter carrier and several frigates.

More than 40 nations have taken part indiplomatic or military meetingsled by France and the U.K. in recent weeks, though fewer are likely to commit military resources.

Macron's office said about 30 countries are to attend Friday's talks, including some from the Middle East and Asia. The list has not been disclosed. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni are expected to attend in person, with others joining by video.

The operation is partly a response to Trump, who has berated allies for failing to join the war and said reopening the strait isnot America's job. The president has called allies “cowards,” said NATO “wasn’t there when we needed them” and telling Britain: “You don’t even have a navy.”

“I imagine there’ll be some desire on the part of many European states, and potentially Canada, to demonstrate the ability to provide security in a way that’s distinct from if not completely separate from the U.S. and which also demonstrates a capacity for independent action,” Kaushal said.

“How many states actually have spare capacity to offer to this is a pretty open question.”

Lawless reported from London.